WATCH | Robert Louis Fenech: ‘We have a unique chance to get Manoel Island back’

Manoel Island in the middle of Marsamxett Harbour is etched in the memories of many as a place for adventure, swimming, playing football and walking. 

Since the year 2000, the island has been the property of the MIDI consortium as part of a concession agreement reached back then to develop luxury apartments at Tigné Point and Manoel Island. 

But now, Moviment Graffitti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA), along with several organisations, are petitioning the government to take back the island and turn it into a public park. When I sit down with Robert Louis Fenech, one of the people behind the campaign, he positively surprises me with his conciliatory demeanour. 

“We do not want the government to aggressively cancel the contract and take back the island; there are talks underway on an extension to the deadline for completion of the project and we believe the government has room to manoeuvre and reach a negotiated settlement by which the island can be returned to the public as a park,” he tells me. 

The deadline Fenech speaks of is March 2026, which was already extended by three years in 2023. MIDI has argued that the deadline can be extended according to the contract because of delays in the issuance of permits and archaeological excavations. 

But Fenech insists the extension of the deadline is not automatic so much so that the company and the government have been holding talks. 

He says that the Malta of the year 2000, when the government felt the need for modern, luxury projects to take off, is not the Malta of today. Fenech argues that today, Malta is materially more prosperous and unlike 25 years ago, there are many luxury places. 

The country does not need a development at Manoel Island, he says, and the congested region home to some 150,000 people and thousands more visitors would be better served with a large public open space. 

The following is an excerpt from the interview. 

The full interview can be viewed on maltatoday.com.mt and our socials. 

The relationship between Moviment Graffitti and Manoel Island goes back some time when several activists, supported by then Gżira Mayor Conrad Borg Manché, had cut through the fencing that blocked public access to the island. As a result of that action, access to the foreshore was restored and people can today go and swim and walk around Manoel Island. What is this relationship between Graffitti and Manoel Island? 

At the time Moviment Graffitti was part of a wider movement called Kamp Emerġenza Ambjent that was started following the news that the American University of Malta was granted land at Żonqor Point in Marsaskala… I was at a meeting when someone mentioned Manoel Island, which had been closed off to the public for 16 years back then. I recall someone saying: ‘Should we go and try and open up access?’ 

I was one of the first to criticise the idea. I felt that we were going to waste our energy on an issue which I thought would have had little public support. I was born in 1991 and never knew the island as a public space; I never visited and did not have a relationship with it. 

[…] 

But then we gauged local support; the mayor also supported us and today everyone remembers those dramatic scenes of us cutting through the fence with wire cutters… that was the first time I experienced the scene of Valletta from across the harbour from the steps at Fort Manoel. We had also gone to swim and I recall telling myself this is a unique place; there is nothing like it in the area… 

When you had taken direct action, the law was on your side... the MIDI consortium had an obligation to ensure public access to the foreshore is maintained. Eventually, this was made a reality with arrangements that kept the foreshore accessible to the public… The more recent campaign is to collect signatures for a parliamentary petition to put pressure on the government to rescind the contract with MIDI and take Manoel Island back for public use. But this time you have a harder nut to crack because there is a contract granting MIDI the right to develop the island. Are you expecting the government to breach the contract? 

No, we are not asking the government to breach the contract but take advantage of a unique and historic situation to enforce a clause in the contract that obliges MIDI to have “substantially finished” the project by March 2026, less than a year from now. “Substantially finished” means that 85% of the buildings and infrastructure prospected at Tigné Point and Manoel Island are finished. This is impossible because the works on Manoel Island have not started… MIDI is asking for an extension of the deadline because the contract stipulates that if the project is not finished by March 2026, the government has the right to take back the land… 

The company has insisted that the March 2026 deadline you are quoting is incorrect because other clauses make exceptions. The company argues it is within the legal parameters to have that deadline extended because of permit and archaeological delays that were outside its control. 

…The project had to be completed by March 2023 and there was an automatic extension until 2026. It [the company] should be paying daily fines because of the delay in completion. That extension was automatic and no discussions were held with government. But the mere fact that today, the two sides are negotiating, shows that any extension now is not an automatic right… As a people, we have a unique and historic chance to pressure the government to demand Manoel Island be returned back to us... 

Then MIDI chairperson Bertie Mizzi had said in a 2012 interview, the company would be willing to give up Manoel Island as long as government compensated it for the restoration works it carried out. Do you see this as a plausible road the government can take? 

This is the road we would like the government to take. A parliamentary petition cannot ask the government to spend public funds and so our request is simple – government should take back Manoel Island and turn it into a public park. We are not entering into the merits of how this can be achieved because the rules governing parliamentary petitions do not allow us to. We believe in a solution that benefits both sides. We do not want government to take possession of Manoel Island in an aggressive way whereby MIDI would take the state to court and the case would drag on for decades. We want this issue to end nicely, wrapped up with a bowtie where everyone is happy with what they achieved. 

You are painting it in a beautiful way but there is a political and economic consideration the government will undoubtedly make: If as a government it rescinds such a contract, it can send out a negative message to potential future investors. This goes beyond Manoel Island. 

One hundred per cent. We have made it clear in our campaign that the government should never come across as if it is breaching contractual obligations. But the government can adopt a different negotiating position once talks are ongoing. We do not want the government to simply give the company all the extensions it wants; we’ve heard they may need until 2033 to finish the project… The government has room to manoeuvre. 

[…] 

We are also hoping that the big shareholders of MIDI, the Mizzi Group, Gasan, MSV Life, Vassallo, also take into consideration their legacy. We would like them to agree that the land should be returned to the people and become a national park. MIDI originally wanted to develop Tigné Point and it was the government included the condition that they also develop Manoel Island. The company completed Tigné Point… but it could not get the [Manoel Island] project off the ground and was seeking new investors. 

[…] 

The MIDI investors are among the biggest entrepreneurs; they are rich and whether they will have a little bit more or a little bit less, we hope, will make no difference to them as much as etching their names into the country’s history once and for all. 

Have you met the investors? 

We have a meeting next week... 

Have you met the government? 

No. For the time being we are concentrating on the petition to show that there is public support for the cause. We have surpassed the 6,500 mark (this interview was conducted on Thursday 17 April) and the more signatures we get the better. The petition is doing well and this week we saw Alfred Sant and Evarist Bartolo showing support for the cause. 

[…] 

Their support is important because part of the agreement was negotiated by Alfred Sant’s government [between 1996 and 1998]. Alfred Sant said that at the time he was in favour of the project but today, with hindsight he feels it is better if the island returns back to the public and becomes a national park. This is a crucial point for us. Malta in 2025 is not the same Malta of 2000, and even more different from the Malta of the early 1990s when the first discussions on the project started. Malta is materially richer; the population has exploded and there are some 150,000 people who live in the conurbation of Gżira, Sliema, Ta’ Xbiex and Msida. It is also a commercial and touristic area used by thousands more people. There is no big public park where people can go to relax away from the noise and pollution. Since public access was restored, Manoel Island is today that type of place… another place like this in the heart of such a conurbation does not exist… 

The parliamentary petition can be accessed via the campaign’s website manoelislandcampaign.com.